Hamzah Yusuf
Hamzah Yusuf says: “What is interesting about Central Asia is – he (Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi) came from a place that is a central of Buddhist learning and I find this deeply significant I actually wrote a paper called: ‘How the Buddhists saved Islam’. It is a paper in which I tried – and I’ve never seen this anywhere – … to show that the paradoxical formulas that are introduced by the Maturidis and Ash’aris are actually coming from Buddhist logic.”
Hamza Yusuf is fascinated with and by sophisticated-looking long terms. We discussed his ‘anthropomorphism’ before. Here we have yet another one, ‘Paradoxical formulas.’ Let’s bring the new term down to the level of normal speech, or at least try.
Paradoxical: “Seeming impossible or difficult to understand, because of containing two opposite facts or characteristic.” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/paradoxical)
Paradoxical as Two Opposite Facts:
- The Quran, part of Allah’s kalam, and the Sunnah, describe Allah with attributes of glory worthy of His perfect Majesty, including His kalam and having a hand and a face.
- The Maturidis describe Allah with none of that, neither having a hand, a face, or Kalam. They even say that the Quran is created!
Paradoxical as Two Opposite Characteristics:
- A creed that agrees with Allah when He describes Himself, without Tashbeeh, that is equating Allah’s attributes with attributes of creation, Ta’teel, that is denying Allah’s attributes, or Taweel, that is altering the apparent meaning of Allah’s attributes, {There is nothing like Him, and He is the AllHearer, the AllSeer}, (4:12)
- A creed that denies most of Allah’s attributes, except four, seven, ten attributes, or as much -or as less- as Allah’s creation, here a Maturidi, is generous with Allah, His Creator. Yet, even when approving, Maturidis mostly deny the essence of what they are approving by using nonsensical formulas. They also deny the rest of Allah’s attributes, thus cutting this ayah into two halves by agreeing with, {There is nothing like Him}, but disagreeing with, {And He is the AllHearer, the AllSeer}.
Hamza Yusuf is right to describe Maturidi and Ash’ari formulas as being paradoxical, since their formulas contradict the essence of the Quran and Sunnah, are impossible to understand, and are massively contradictory to each other and to the Quran and Sunnah. Yet, I doubt the Maturidis or the Ash’aris would appreciate Hamza Yusuf’s characterization of their paradoxical formulas as coming from Buddhist logic.
Fact: Ash’ari and Maturidi formulas are paradoxical to each other and to the Quran and Sunnah. By definition, paradoxical is between TWO opposite facts or characteristics. Thus, we cannot at this time paradoxically compare Ash’aris vs. Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash’ari (who affirmed Allah’s hand, face and kalam), or Ash’aris vs. other Ash’aris, or Ash’aris vs. Maturidis, or Maturidis vs. other Maturidis, or all of them vs. the Quran and Sunnah! Too many paradoxicals to fit in one article.
We thank hamza Yusuf, though, for approving -in his own impossible to understand terms- that: 1) Maturidi and Ash’ari formulas are paradoxical, that being here, to the Quran and Sunnah which clearly affirm Allah’s attributes; 2) Maturidi and Ash’ari paradoxical formulas did not come from the Quran and Sunnah, but from Buddhist logic!
Jalal Abualrub (www.IslamLife.com)